By Our Reporter
Kajiado County Senator Samuel Seki has called for a county health sector stakeholders’ engagement meeting.
The senator says his office has received numerous complaints from the public regarding the level and quality of services in the county’s medical facilities — specifically on human resources, diagnostic and prescriptive capacities.
In a letter dated December 15, 2022 and seen by Education News, the Senator indicated that the Senate serves to protect the interests of counties and its residents.
He said his office is committed to ensuring that residents do not miss out on their right to the best services, especially on matters of health due to avoidable management gaps.
The stakeholders invited are union officials of various medical fields, civil society groups, hospital boards, Ministry of Health representatives, resident/neighborhood associations, professional associations/groups, the business community, trade unions, consumer lobby groups, community/opinion leaders, the local administration and concerned residents.
“The first step towards getting a solution to the complaints is to give an ear to a broad spectrum of health stakeholders to obtain a fair view of the prevailing status. This is therefore to invite the above stakeholders to consultative meetings as per the attached schedule,” reads a part of the letter.
The main objective of the consultations is to identify the real gaps in service delivery and prescribe suitable mitigation measures and appropriate institutions for required action.
This comes on the backdrop of a war of words between senior county health officers after transfer of a number of staff.
On October 13, 2022, 50 staff members were transferred to different health facilities across the county.
Days later on October 23, a total of 13 members of the County Health Management Team (CHMT) were transferred. Again, on November 23, 40 staff were transferred including 30 senior medical doctors
The county assembly had summoned the county officers in connection with the issues.
County Executive Committee Member in charge of health Alex Kilouwa and in charge of Health Services Jonathan Kulei’s differences played out publicly when they appeared before Assembly Health Committee where Kilouwa defended himself saying there were no transfers done.
